Grant applications for rhododendron management on Riska Island: EIR release

Information requested

Grant applications and support provided for the management of Rhododendron within woodland on Riska Island between 2010 and the present.
1. Grant applications for forest management, management of rhododendrons (non native species) this may have previously been a Woodland Improvement Grant or similar.
2. Company name or individual applying for grant.
3. Value of grant.
4. Copy of application.
5. Copy of the Management Plan or Forest Plan or reference details.

Request search range from 2010 until 2020

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested related to question 1 – 3 where it is available in Annex 1.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide all of the information you have requested to question 4 and 5. Unfortunately the information is contained within files at an office where there is limited access and facilities due to  the Covid-19 restrictions. We hope to be able to allow staff increased access to the office and to work from there in the coming weeks and are happy to make appropriate copies of the relevant information and send it to you as soon as we can.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI-202000040739 Information released

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